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Friday, January 30, 2015

Why try?

Fate is usually thought of as a predetermined course of events beyond human control. A typical response to a belief in fate is resignation—if we can’t change destiny, then why even try? Whatever happens, happens, and we can’t do anything about it. This is called “fatalism,” and it is not biblical.

The Bible teaches that Man was created with the ability to make moral choices and that he is responsible for those choices. The Fall of Man was not a predetermined event in which Adam and Eve were hapless victims of a Puppet-Master God.

I'd just point out that this is a clueless objection even on its own terms. If every thing that happens is predestined, is the logical response to exclaim: "Why even try?" No.

i) If you were predestined not to try, then you couldn't try even if you wanted to. Indeed, You'd be predestined not to want to try. In that event, you couldn't begin to try. The inclination would be absent.

ii) Conversely, if you were predestined to try, then you're able to try. In that event, you are bound to try.

iii) If you were predestined to try and fail, then you will fail.

iv) Conversely, if you were predestined to try and succeed, then you will succeed.

v) The very fact that you can contemplate trying to do something means predestination didn't prevent you from considering the attempt. In that case, you were predestined to contemplate the attempted action.

Since you don't know in advance the predestined course of events in any particular instance, the way to find out what you are able to do is to give it a try.

1 comment:

I see that you put one of the labels as "Anti-Calvinism". I always thought that Got Questions leaned towards a reformed way of thinking? (of course, this confused me when they recently did a WLC style post on omni benevolence)